Mark Ruffalo Talks ‘The Avengers 2′ Casting Issues & Cameos

Despite the record-level success of Iron Man 3 in its first few weeks since release, some of the latest headlines surrounding the theatrical return of the Armored Avenger haven’t been so positive, focusing on the reality that Robert Downey Jr. is not signed for any further appearances. With reports pointing towards a $70-80 million payout for his appearance in The Avengers and similarly high number numbers expected for the Iron Man threequel, the notoriously money-cautious Marvel Studios faces quite a financial challenge in signing RDJ for an extended contract, along with other key players who’ve yet to sign for The Avengers 2.

According to one of the actors involved, the situation may be slightly overblown even though it is evident that one day, Marvel Studios will have to recast the Tony Stark character.

Speaking with Moviefone while promoting Now You See Me, Mark Ruffalo touched on the topic of the reports about contract negotiations and issues Marvel is facing for The Avengers sequel, playing unaware of the situation.

“I haven’t caught wind of any of that. I was surprised to hear it, because I don’t even think anyone’s really started negotiating yet.”

He also joked about there being no need for fans to panic about their heroes being recast but did say cautiously that actors are usually the last ones to find out about these sorts of changes.

“I think so. I’d be really sad if they did. I can’t imagine that. That would be bad. ‘That would not be good,’ as Joss Whedon would say… I’d love to come back as The Hulk. I don’t foresee not coming back as The Hulk.”

This next little bit enters spoiler territory for Iron Man 3 so for those who didn’t contribute to the film’s near-one-billion-dollar worldwide box office haul, you may not want to read ahead.

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SPOILER WARNING

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Rumors over the last year pointed towards post-credit ‘button’ scenes at the end of Iron Man 3 possibly teasing Ant-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy – and while Marvel Studios did have their own idea at one point as to what to do at the end – the end result was something that oddly favored fun over teasing or marketing other Phase Two features. According to Ruffalo, it may have been Robert Downey Jr.’s idea:

“We were doing the Academy Awards and Robert [Downey Jr.] said, ‘Hey, what do you think about coming and doing a cameo In Iron Man?’ So he pitched the idea of the theme and I said, ‘I would love to do that.’ So, ten days later, I’m on a plane to L.A. and we’re shooting that scene. It was a lot of fun. It was written, but we improvised a little bit and Shane gave us some adjustments. I haven’t seen it yet, though. Robert thought it would be a good cap to all of the rest of the Iron Man story.”

He also said that he’s still signed on for five more films, meaning his cameo appearance in IM3 may not have counted as one of those options.

With Iron Man 3 poised the cross the billion dollar mark this week, should Marvel Studios have taken advantage of the opportunity to tease this fall’s Thor sequel or next year’s ambitious and risky Guardians of the Galaxy?

Iron Man 3 is currently in theaters, Thor: The Dark World on November 8, 2013, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014, The Avengers 2 on May 1, 2015, Ant-Man on November 6, 2015, and Doctor Strange sometime after that.

Let me know on Twitter @rob_keyes if you’re hoping to see more of Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk.

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leathercheerio 1 year ago

Still haven’t seen the film. Ill probably wait til DVD but my opinion on the scene is simple. It was a perfect ending for Iron Man’s trilogy. Probably for any future Iron Man movies. This won’t be the last time we see Stark suit up, but it might be the last time we see a solo film. If you don’t look at this film as a lead into Phase 2, but the end of the Iron Man trilogy, I think you’d accept it.

I think there should have been more than one scene. The therapy session could be kept in at the end, but GotG needs serious build- up. Maybe not Stark going into space, but at least some kinda message from Star- Lord.

That therapy session was the best! I loved it! Much better than some therapy session I’ve seen!
I loved the tota irreverance of it all. Those 2 have some of the best chemistry. Just like all the CURRENT Marvel actors!

I loved the post credits scene. But what you guys seem to be forgetting is that that since Thor, there have been Marvel one shot short films on the Blu-Ray release. Maybe they will tese the new films on the Iron Man 3 Blu-ray short film

I didn’t forget about those. I just got done watching phase one. And I had to flip flop from the Thor one shot and Cap one shot. I hope they do one on the Ironman 3 Blu-ray. I was on the fence with Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D but after seeing that T.V spot in a article yesterday I was pretty impressed.

To me this in comparison is the next Star Wars. I love the MCU , Didn’t care for the Amazing Spiderman so I’ll wait till Marvel Gets to rights for Spiderman from Sony so that way we can have a good cross over. Same goes for X-Men.

As someone who’s been following the news about the casting/negotiating news I can believe that it’s been just a bit overblown.

I mean, yes I’m sure there are negotiations going, but some of the reports I read about it were really over the top.

I’ll just hope for the best. Hope Marvel will be willing to pay an appropriate amount, hoping the actors don’t ask more than what’s reasonable. Hoping that all will work out.

We’ll see what the future brings.

I loved the Bruce Banner cameo at the end. Sure, I would’ve loved some teasing concerning some upcoming movie, but this was good too. We did get the ThorTDW trailer at the start of Iron Man 3, so that counts as promoting the next project. More people saw that than the Banner scene, since they are already in the theatre for the trailers, but they don’t stay for the post-credit scene.

Replace RDJ! I’m okay with it. Nearly 100 million to one person just leaves a bad taste in my mouth about RDJ. It’s the only way. His salary alone is half the cost for producing a single movie.
Get on board people! He’s good. He’s not worth sacrificing MAYBE another Marvel movie a year. Imagine? Three Marvel movies a year? His bloated contract is bad for morale AND blocks the the potential for an ever expanding MMU. You could possibly pay for the rights for Spider-Man. I don’t know.
Here’s how you replace RDJ: The Extremis virus actually is perfected by Tony Stark, and as in the comics, puts him in a cocoon state before he reemerges, his genes-enhanced and a youthful looking Tony, recast with an up-and-comer, takes over for the rest of the franchise. Pepper can’t deal, leaves Tony and he’s free to be the billioniare playboy we all know and love. Gwyneth Paltrow wants to leave the franchise anyway.

your just jelous that your not that talented….. STOP WHINING!!!
Give the man his money because he has MOST DEFINENTLY made it back 10 fold for Marvel, Believe me they will feel it in their pockets if they let RDJ walk

I wouldn’t go see Iron Man 4, but I would go see Avengers 2 (as long as there was no other Tony Stark — someone else as Iron Man could maybe be pulled off, but it’d have to be some other person taking up the role). This isn’t comic books; you can’t just retcon at will, and huge parts of these movies are the interactions between the specific actors — no one can tell me Stark & Banner would have the same science-buddies type chemistry if you changed Stark’s actor.
That’d be more jarring than the character being different; the change in the relationships with the other characters.

I’d say that’s the last stand alone Iron Man. 3 wasn’t very good from a story standpoint. It was more of a campy, joke fest.

I believe RDJ will be in Avengers 2, or it’ll be a flop. It was his personality that gave life to this whole sequence of movies with IM1 and held the Avengers movie together. But even his personality can’t overcome bad directing and poor script.

As for the post credits scene, what else could they have done? With no deal in hand for RDJ to continue, how could they effectively tease any of the next movies (A2, Cap2, Thor2)? The teases have thus far used someone from the movie you just saw interacting with a character or plot device for the next movie. Given that Iron Man was alone, no Nick Fury, no Black Widow, no Agent Coulson…who was doing the handoff? So they had to go humor.

Humor but it was also effective as a story utility. It explains, from a film perspective, who he was talking to when he was doing all the voice-over narraration. Otherwise, are we supposed to accept that we’re being spoon fed story details because Tony Stark is addressing, not a friend and cohort in Bruce Banner but the audience itself? He’s not Deadpool breaking the fourth wall.

I just know one thing, Marvel Studios has become dependent on RDJ as Tony Stark (and they are doing the same with Thor), same problem Fox has with Wolverine and Hugh Jackman…if they recast Downey along Johansson, Hemsworth and Jackson, after Avengers 2, Marvel can kiss its popularity and $$$ goodbye.
If they are gonna sign RDJ as Iron Man again, its best just to keep him in the Avengers storyline, because his solo films have less quality for each they release. IM3 was a Disney disaster, for god sake…I went to see a superhero movie﻿ or a “real” film (like the trailer that implied that the movie was going to be dark), not a cheap comedy show.

This first movie is a GREAT adaptation, the third one wasn’t: no forced jokes (that don’t make you laugh by the way), no preposterous twists about IM enemies, not loud explosive cartoonish scenes, no inconsistencies about the plot, respect for the comic book fans but keeping aligned to public that never heard of Iron Man before and entertaining all the way from beginning to end.

If we keep the logic of IM3, IM be mashed potatoes since the first attack in the scene where he first goes to Gulmira against the machine guns, the tank and the f-22′s firing at him…no reason of becoming Iron Man…so I say, don’t be greedy Marvel, don’t make a childish IM4 and keep RDJ for the Avengers storyline (you can develop him with that rumor in which he goes to space with the GotG and therefore justify his absence with solo films)…because if you recast RDJ, you practically give chances to WB and DC to come strong.

as the saying goes “ive a bad feeling about this”.It doesn’t bode well for avengers movies
Much like the spidey sequels and the batman sequels and the x men sequels they got too popular ,suffered a ton of studio interference because of the extra cash they throw at it ,certain actors get too much screen time and the movies go to hell in a hand cart because we forget about a little thing called story